Gas turbine engines, such as those used to power modern commercial and military aircraft, may include a fan section. The fan section may be used to draw ambient air into the gas turbine engine using large fan blades. It is imperative to the design of the gas turbine engine to produce maximum airflow throughout the engine by limiting the airflow leakage throughout the fan section. Therefore, components of the fan section may be designed to limit the loss of airflow from a main flowpath through the fan.
The fan section may include platforms between adjacent fan blades that are supported by a fan hub to which the blades are secured. Typically, the platforms include seals adhered to platform walls adjacent to the exterior airfoil surface of the fan blades. Such seals may obstruct gaps between the platforms and the fan blades to provide a more aerodynamic inner flow path surface by eliminating airflow leakage at the slots between the fan blade and the platform.
Platform seal designs may include flap seals. A flap seal may have flaps of a variety of shapes which are angled toward the root of the fan blade. As a result, the platforms may be installed more easily from a position radially outward from the fan hub since the flaps will deflect inward, away from the fan blade during installation. The flaps may load in the radially outward direction during engine operation, which may improve sealing against an adjacent wall of the fan blade.
However, in some gas turbine fan sections, a spinner seal abutted aft of the spinner may be included with a castellation to further reduce airflow leakage. When abutted to the fan hub, the spinner seal may interface with the flap seals of the platforms of the fan hub and the forward face of the fan blade root. Therefore, a proper sealing solution between a spinner seal, respective flap seals associated with fan hub platforms, and the respective fan blade root is needed.